mgo.licio.us

"The face of the operation is Briatore (referred to exclusively in the film by his colleagues and angry, chanting detractors as "Flavio"), an anthropomorphic radish who spends most of his time at QPR plotting to fire all of the managers."

At press time, Harbaugh had sent Michigan’s athletic department an envelope containing a heavily annotated seating chart, a list of the 63,000 seat views he had found unsatisfactory, and a glowing 70-page report on section 25, row 12, seat 9, which he claimed is “exactly what the great sport of football is all about.”

Rodriguez's Jan/Feb 08 Recruiting

Something struck me as I was looking back at the 08 class -- the one where Rodriguez took over in December 07 (officially Jan 08 after Capital One Bowl) and had basically 1-2 months to recruit:

The players we got in that 1 month period are critical members to this team. In fact, what RR was able to pull off is somewhat remarkable considering what vast shift in philosophy this program was undergoing. Here is a list of players worth noting:

JT Floyd - starting CB

Odoms - starting WR

Omameh - starting G (but he can't be good, he's only a 2 star on Rivals...)

Kevin Koger - starting TE - Scout/Rivals has this as an earlier commit but if I recall, RR was able to convince him to stay when he was about to go somewhere else. I could be wrong..

EDIT: Looks like Koger was a solid commit when RR came aboard, so maybe not as crucial for him.

Barnum - future starter

All in 1 month's time. Had Brandon Smith panned out this would have been even more of a Home Run.

It is also worth noting that most coaches are hired much earlier than RR was back in December. My point is that we could be in far worse shape right now considering the change UM underwent during that year. Maybe RR's Jan/Feb 08 impact wasn't noticed right away, but it has clearly paid off. One may argue that most of these impact players are on offense, which is a vaid point (if not criticism). But clearly this was a successful and critical month for UM football.

RR did well with the other guys, but his main target through that whole process was the best recruit in the country, and he missed. I don't want to deal in what-ifs, but if Pryor had come here, wow those two months would have been quite a haul.

"The trouble with quotes on the internet, is that it is often difficult to discern whether or not they are genuine" --Abraham Lincoln

We were completely off Pryor's radar before the coaching change. It was RR who got us to make up a lot of ground and get into his top two, but it was too little, too late. If he'd taken over a year earlier, we may well have landed Pryor.

Yes. RR will do even better this time unencumbered by all this bullshit grief and drama that he has had to undeservedly put up with until now. Looks good to me.

That list of contributing players is remarkable. It speaks well to RR's talent to see talent where others don't. And teach and train and coach up the young students and make them men.

Let's see...good eye for talent...great recruiter, (especially late, even with a ton of baggage)...an innovator and student of the game...a proven winner... and an ability to keep on going hard even with all the grief and ridiculous drama. Now we have a super QB and an exciting, hard working, selfless, intelligent, young team, All in for RR and for each other. With a winning record, a (warm?) bowl game, and total coaching job security. That should help a lot with recruiting.

Great Recruiting + Great Coaching + Great Program = Victorious Champions

Taylor Hill, LB - never made it through fall camp and playing for Youngstown State

Justin Feagin, QB/WR - wannabe drug dealer

Boubacar Cissoko, CB - Carr recruit who Rodriguez had to convince to stick around. Now in jail.

Rodriguez pulled in some solid recruits, but he also had his fair share of clunkers. When you add to that the fact that an inordinate number of kids transferred/quit football after his arrival, the net gain is a little bit murky.

I found a Scout thread that says it was academic issues (though they don't cite anything to back it up). I can't find any news about him transferring though so it looks like he's just washed out of the program there.